Fort Scott commissioners move to stop ADM industrial waste after repeated contract breaches

The Fort Scott City Commission voted unanimously to stop taking industrial waste from ADM unless the company meets new conditions the city will demand, and to temporarily suspend ADM’s industrial discharges while staff negotiates a revised contract.

Commissioners approved a pair of motions directing the city manager to accept only domestic loads and to present ADM with a written contract that would require mechanical dredging of the municipal lagoons, provision of a 260,000‑gallon holding tank, and payment for any pretreatment chemicals or monitoring the city must supply. Commissioners also voted to temporarily suspend ADM’s industrial waste deliveries until the city manager and wastewater director can communicate the city’s expectations and secure a written agreement.

The actions responded to months of elevated biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) readings in loads ADM hauled to the city’s facility, and to the recent withdrawal of AMS, a third‑party pretreatment contractor the city had relied on. Scott Slater, superintendent of water and wastewater utilities, told commissioners that laboratory confirmations for BOD/COD come from an outside lab and can take about three weeks, while the plant uses a Proteus handheld analyzer for immediate screening at the dump point.

“The bad thing about that is for, like, the BOD and the COD ... we collect the samples on that, but we don’t get the results back for three weeks,” Slater said. He said staff have been using a Proteus field reader to check incoming loads but that even when field readings show elevated values, trucks continued to be allowed to discharge. Slater and other staff described repeated contract breaches and a long record of surcharges that the commission said had been used for past plant repairs.

Commission discussion laid out three options staff are to present to ADM: (1) restore on‑site pretreatment services such as AMS, (2) supply the promised 260,000‑gallon holding tank and perform mechanical lagoon dredging, or (3) accept termination of the city’s acceptance of industrial waste. Commissioners stressed the city’s limited tolerance for continued high‑strength loads because of odors and operational strain on the lagoons and treatment processes.

The commission’s motions do not unilaterally cancel any existing legal contract but do set a policy line: the city will refuse loads that exceed the contract limits and will only accept domestic loads while negotiations continue. Staff were directed to draft a written contract for ADM that includes mechanical dredging, the tank, cost responsibility for chemicals/pretreatment, and clearer enforcement measures; if ADM will not sign, the city will stop industrial discharges from the company.

Next steps: City staff will propose contract language to ADM, continue daily monitoring using field equipment, and return to the commission with progress updates. The commission asked staff to include engineering and cost estimates to ensure the lagoon and plant are protected if industrial discharges resume.